Friday, July 09, 2010

Overbilling In Los Angeles

"Hey Tom The Temp,

Big fan of your blog! Keeping it real, man, keeping it real.

Here's one more crappy story for the Wall of Shame. Probably not the worst, by far, but I think it kind of stinks.

So I was working on an easy little project at a big Los Angeles firm. Some kind of breach of contract nonsense, really easy. Within a week, I finish two batches adding up to about 1700 documents. No big deal, right? Actually kind of a slow pace for many of the projects in L.A.

Without much warning, the project leader (another temp) gets ticked off at me. Because her friends on this deal, who came with her from a prior project, hadn't finished even their first batch, and that looked bad. Makes little sense to me, either, actually, since I would be hard-pressed to match names with faces . . . never saw much of those folks, or really cared anything about them way down at their end of the hallway.

Guess who gets let go?

LOL, apparently working up to spec at a marginally competent level gets you fired these days.

What makes it ironic is that I thought I was the lazy one . . . I mean, we're talking about assignments that had nothing but junk e-mail and review criteria along the lines of "Is it a contract? Mark it with the "contract" tag. The end." And they were handing out massive unplanned break time, every day, for computer crashes and all sorts of administrative what-have-you."

Yes, unfortunately this is all too common. Sadly, certain temporary attorneys blatantly overbill and milk the projects for all they are worth. Certain attorneys even steal hours by knowingly not working for the times they jot down. The agencies & firms know this. Sadly, quality and professionalism often times take a back seat to cheap/incompetent labor, profitability, and wide partner billing margins. Stay away from dehumanizing billing machines that skirt around the fringes of legal ethics by hiding under the banner of elite law firm name.

126 comments:

Anonymous
said...

All too common behavior in the L.A. market, beware those project leader beeatches and their drama queen bitches/faggot flunky eunuchs. U know who they are. The same power-hungry serfs who didn't understand the point of The Lord of the Flies.

I am shocked, shocked that this behavior is going on in the temp world. Tom the Temp: You have broke new ground here. I thought that all temps were upstanding and responsible professionals. Reminds me of a scene from Casablanca: Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds? Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! [a croupier hands Renault a pile of money] Croupier: Your winnings, sir. Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much. [aloud] Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!

Update and S&C do this. They blacklist good people because they don't suck up to the bimbo recruiter queens. They'd rather hire lazy, fat saddlebag gals that will work for cheap. Half of them don't even read the docs.

If you're new to doc review, this behavior is common on all doc reviews. I bet the other reviewers were also pissed at you - why do you think that doc review projects aren't as plentiful as before? Honesty and ethics don't pay in doc review. The powers that control the purse springs, i.e. clients, are understanding this "milking" more and more, which is why India is drawing them more and more. Doesn't matter if the Indians are also milking them since they get paid a fraction of the wages their unethical counterparts in America enjoy [strike that] USED to enjoy. Even recruiters don't want to hire licensed attorneys, half the cattle calls nowadays call for paralegals or unlicensed JDs for the very same fucking foregoing reasons. Attorneys are immoral, lying fucking scumbags - now go pound the pavement for a real job.

You really need to figure out in advance what the group's pace is in order to determine what would be considered Supertemp pace.

Acceptable pace varies from project to project, although every project will have Supertemps who think that somehow their incredible speed and efficiency at coding docs will be noticed and rewarded with a permanent position or some other recognition. (You can usually spot Supertemps, because they're either fresh-faced, energetic, positive-thinking, just-out-of-law-school rookies or old farts who walk tall with their "prideful work ethic.")

They all find out soon enough that when the time comes and there are no more docs to review, everyone will be lined up in front of the ditch they dug themselves and shot, regardless of how fast you clicked. So why hasten your own demise and dig faster than necessary? Simple concept, but difficult for many to wrap their heads around.

Just another tragic state of affairs in the declining American empire. Fact is if you are competent, ethical, and hard-working, doc review is not for you because your colleagues, especially those who are in charge, will - like a little chick that has different color feathers from the rest of the brood - peck you to death. They have dedicated the majority of their mental capacity to doc review game theory, gossip, and plotting revenge for petty sleights and perceived insults. Anyone who actually has good character has to keep it suppressed. Yes, I know, it sounds like hell because it is hell. That's what Sartre wrote about. That's what concentration camps and North Korea is. Save your soul dude.

"They all find out soon enough that when the time comes and there are no more docs to review, everyone will be lined up in front of the ditch they dug themselves and shot, regardless of how fast you clicked."

Are you reading that kiddies? Don't take out 150K debt to work at a deadend job where there is no incentive to work hard and you sit around like a burnt-out schlub. Skip law school and sign up at the post office.

Yowza...3:00 uses the "pace" as a cover for unethical work standards. This should be required learning for all law grads on how to "pace" a review of documents since that be the only job they be able to find...

Illegal Alien- 7 bucks an hour. All off the books, of course. 1500x7= $10,000. Pops out anchor baby and/or enters into a marriage of convenience. Collects food stamps, welfare, and Medicaid. A recent report concluded that in every state in the nation, welfare pays far more than a low-wage job. According to the report, "The value of the total package of benefits [received by AFDC recipients] relative to a job providing the same after-tax income ranges from a high of $36,400 in Hawaii to a low of $11,500 in Mississippi. In eight jurisdictions...welfare pays at least the equivalent of a $25,000 a year job. $10,000 + $25,000=

ILLEGAL ALIEN'S REAL INCOME = $35,000.

---------------------------

TTT grad earns $20 bucks hour in some shitlaw factory. $20x1500=$30,000. Shitlaw worker of course has to pay taxes, or he is hounded to the end of the earth by the IRS. $30,000-6,000=$24,000. Shitlaw TTT grad of course gets no health insurance and is "too rich" to be eligible for Medicaid. Food stamps are off the table if he/she was lucky enough to find a job. Sallie Mae of course comes along and gets her huge piece. $24,000-10,000=$14,000

Companies need to wise up and eliminate all the zillions of clearly-junk e-mails before passing off the documents to law firms.

The program I've used (Stratify by Iron Mountain) has a few different ways to filter documents, and so you can get rid of a ton of junk very early on by scanning for huge batches of e-mails from the same irrelevant sender, dates that are beyond the scope of the dispute, etc.

If you keep the level of review in-house where you're not paying by the hour, you can probably give your hourly attorneys only 20% of the previous workload and save potentially millions of dollars.

My personal record on doc review: 7000 documents in one hour. This was after I was given notice I was being laid off, and I figured I'd destroy a few billable hours for the remaining people on my way out.

So contract attorneys are supposed to act like unionized employees? You sound like some of the fucking idiots populating these projects who think standing up in front of their monitor with a sign saying "UNION" will actually get something started.

3:55: Awesome, you rock dude. Seriously, you do. Nothing like sticking it to the shits who think that gobbledygook on an otherwise blank piece of paper warrants the scrutiny of a trained lawyer's eyes.

But unfortunately, the cunt in charge most likely tagged those 7,000 docs as needing qc.

Sullivan & Cromwell is notorious for this. The freaks and goblins that frequent the place will drive you insane. Nobody works over there, they cohort and commit incest with each other. Stay away, stay very far away.

Different character. Braces guy is some drooling retarted dumbass posting from a basement in Englewood, NJ. Income guy is some ugly skin headed Neo-Nazi dressed up in white sheets posting from his compound in Waco, Tx.

Tom, you are describing nearly every job on the planet. Not just union jobs. Especially dead end ones. You do realize that - don't you? Only managers or careers with a great deal of upswing are different.

The work is shit, no surprise. The goal is to slip through the cracks by doing as little work as possible. Why be a Supertemp? The scamming illiterate Nigerians and their networks that are stealing from the projects certainly don't do any work. Why do a decent job to cover them?

I am working with an ugly and hideous Saddlebag Queen who is putting down fake hours. I am dying to bust her - if anyone has an ideas on how to expose an ugly beast of a temp do let me know - I want to get rid of her not just because she is a crook but also for the aestethics of the office. She is like a big pile of dung that makes us all nauseous.

I was on a project and this fat ugly beast running the thing would divvy up the batches by giving the easy work to her friends. They would disappear for hours on end and I just knew deep down that they were cooking the books. God forbid you said anything. The agency would blacklist you in heartbeat. They worshipped the dong of this fat ugly beast to keep the workstream flowing.

There was some bitchy black chick named Excellent on a project I was on. Why do black people overcompensate for years of oppression by going over the top with egomania? Does going from one extreme to another somehow balance things out?

While the sweeps of the past commonly led to the deportation of such workers, the “silent raids,” as employers call the audits, usually result in the workers being fired, but in many cases they are not deported.

Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has conducted audits of employee files at more than 2,900 companies. The agency has levied a record $3 million in civil fines so far this year on businesses that hired unauthorized immigrants, according to official figures. Thousands of those workers have been fired, immigrant groups estimate."

I guess Better Coder had one too many bottles of Chateau Lafitte Rothschild '87 and got stoned one too many times on Colombian hash, and had one too many trysts with runway models named Sergio... and has been laid off and blacklisted permanently!!!

OK, lemme guess... 4-inch long nails painted in 6 colors... giant cheap ghetto earrings... Popeye's for lunch (hmmm... I had Popeye's for lunch today!)... gossip about her friends LaShuwann and D'Renee... Plans for the "family union".... Cross looks and opprobrious remarks at any cracker who makes a comment that could even REMOTELY be construed as racist.... :)

One simple thing that can be done to make it harder for poorly-ranked law schools to commit fraud by duping in propsective students, is for the ABA to ban the shittiest schools from using the term "University" in their names.

For instance, "Western State University" in Fullerton, CA, which, according to Third Tier Reality, recently won full ABA accreditation, is not a university in any sense.

Likewise, schools like "Thomas Jefferson University" in San Diego, "Golden Gate University" in San Francisco, etc. are NOT UNIVERSITIES.

I'm sure there are a lot of examples of this kind of outright fraud and misrepresentation on the East Coast, too.

By falsely promoting themselves to the public as "universities", these low-tier, substandard, poorly-run schools are implying that they provide a full range of academic opportunity to students.

Nothing could be further from the truth. They are money-grubbing, for-profit diploma mills.

They should be called out, exposed as frauds, and prohibited from using the word "University" in their names!

I don't get black people and these weird names. I even asked a few of my black friends where they come up with these names, but none of them would give me a straight answer. It's like a black secret. Seriously, how could you name your kid LeBron or LaDanien or D'Brickishaw? You have to sit there and make those names up from scratch. Excellent, at least it's a word already, although a pretentious one.

Even if they have a normal name, like Chad Johnson, they have to go change it to something weird, like Chad Ochocinco. Shaquille is convenient, since it rhymes with O'Neal, and we know that all black people like to rap. LeBron James could just as easily been James LeBron, and he might be, if he only knew his father. All three are multi-millionaires for athletic prowess.

Its appalling. Another black eye on our crappy profession. I am done working for private firms. It was a mistake to even get involved with so many snakes. I am going federal or sole practioner. Screw you guys...I am going home.

"Excellent" and "Tiffany" and "Loise Vuitton" and "Chanel" are look like hippos - sorry not make that rhinos, hippos are still cute.

That fat black temp on my case who is making life not worth living is 300 pounds with a pendulous ass and mammaries, cellulite, face like Freddy Kruger - her kid barely has food to eat but she totes around a Prada bag and scowls at every light skinned chick who dares look happy.

9:49 am: your comment presupposes a sista's understanding on what to do with that bone. Give her money, and she becomes ni%%a-rich. In her hands today, gone tomorrow. Like "investing" in real estate in 2005-2006. Fucking idiot bitches.

Its easy to poke fun at ethnic and racial groups doing document review. Sorry about the Rhino comment sitting on a man's face. Didn't mean to wreck anyone's appetite. The truth is there are too many slobs on these projects regardless of race or gender. It attracts the bottom of the barrel due to the nature of the work and the economy.

I could not but agree. It seems it may be part and parcel of our culture of rewarding mediocrity, merely for the sake of P.C., or as some say the politics of inclusion and equalizing out past injustices from a prior century or time. The fact is in order to achieve the goal, which can be argued to be laudable, we jeopradize the future of society.

Considering the range of human injustices in the entire world, not just within the context of history of the U.S., we've been "taken", and those for whose alleged benefit such philosophy has been developed, have been "taken".

What might work is to reduce admission to colleges and grad schools, based solely on performance in high school based on "real" grades and testing, not subjective grades - as to strict standards of testing, without dwemming the testing or coursework down -rather than orient them solely for whose who can obtain grants, student loans, or pay tuition. Develop votech curriculums, shorter engineering programs for less complex engineerting tasks, and direct math curriculums or high schools.

Base it on intelligence, talent, and performance, not upon political ideology, ethnicity, race, gender, lack of opportunity, or privilege.

The system in place now does nothing but contribute to destroying our culture and economic competitiveness. If people can't read or do basic math, yet continue to be promoted, why would any employer choose an American ultimatelyh over someone from a country who actually values skills, and that means basic skills.

The entire contract attorney paradigm is that the contract attorneys work slow. They get paid more, the agency gets paid more, the firm gets paid more, and the client gets screwed unless they are on top of everything, which they usually aren't.

Personally, I work fast, not because I think I'm going to get hired, but because the only way to make real money doing this is to churn dead end projects over quickly and jump onto new ones which allow for more hours and higher pay. I don't want to milk a 40 hour a week project for a year, I want to get 50-60 hours a week and maybe work 40-45 weeks.

Some of these recruiters out in L.A. used to work at biglaw (yes, I used lower case deliberately), and even though they are recruiters now, they still carry the attitude of having worked at biglaw. They are easy to pick out. Watch out for them. They are fucking cowards. I witnessed one of them actually hiding when a delivery person lost his temper at the office receptionist. Moreover, they pushed someone else to deal with that person. Nothing speaks to a person's character as shoving someone else to take a potential hit. Sometimes I wish contract attorneys could realistically band together to find work for themselves and throw these pussy recruiters under a train.

I have been on projects where the supervsing attorneys ask the reviewers for suggested search terms to use to narrow down the documents. I am always shocked by the psychos who actually have a prewritten list of terms/type of documents that willl narrow down the document universe. I could kill when I see them trying to impress their way out of a job.

One cock reviewer was an IT professional in a previous life and actually suggested to the supervising associate attorney how to weed out thousands of documents.

Supervising associate attorneys who ask questions to contract attorneys like how to weed out thousands of documents are just playing their part in scamming their client. Let's call this whole game for what it is. Just another stupid corporation that got sued for whatever reason and everything down the legal services chain has got their proboscis jabbed in and sucking the dollars from that entity for all its worth (but not too much). All parasites know how to milk a host and keep it living. Feel bad for the shareholders,, though.................not.

The cock attorneys are just uneducated parasites but if they want to stay fed, they'll learn quick.

There was a boy on a cock review job and he said to himself, "I am so burned out doing cock review that I am just gonna take it real easy this time around." So he did. The funny thing was he could see the progress of all the other cock reviewers with the cock review platform that he had. But he did not care at all about that. Near the end of the review he tied for last for the least number of cocks reviewed. It was funny. On the last day of the project the associate personally told cock review boy that he had done a great job.

Doc review is a black industry. Non-Elite whites, the TTT grads who couldn't get associate and partner positions in BigLaw, are screwed, since not only can't they get jobs with the elite crackers, but they also can't get many doc review jobs. Most of the doc review slots go to blacks. Take a look at any doc review. Blacks are overwhelmingly represented. And no one can say that white people aren't also vying for those positions - as miserable as they are, it's a living.

This works out for the BigLaw firms, who can then claim "DIVERSITY" by producing black temp numbers as proof, and works for the agencies, who actively seek out the blacks to make themselves look good and satisfy the firms' desire for "DIVERSITY."

The white people who pay the price for "DIVERSITY" aren't the ancestors of WASPs who did the "historical persecution" of blacks. Those lucky WASP crackers are sitting pretty at the top of the heap, along with their Elite Jewish friends. The ones who pay the price are the middle-of-the-road ancestors of early 20th century non-WASP Gentile immigrants, who are white by skin color, but in no way Elites. Neither they nor their ancestors did any persecution of blacks. As a matter of fact, the Irish and Italians in particular were also persecuted by the WASP crackers!

So the Elite WASPs and Jews who come up with diversity plans aren't affected by it. They leave that burden to the unlucky, non-Elite whites.

God I love the poster above. Clearly he is or should be a diciple of The Great One known and John B. The Prophet and Truthsayer. He has the whole elitists run law thang and fake diversity thang down pat. Truly my kneegrow! God bless!

A lawyer who sued a student loan company over hidden fees in loan agreements cannot be forced into arbitration and can pursue a class action, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled yesterday.The circuit in Fensterstock v. Affiliated Computer Services, 09-1562-cv, said that the loan agreement's class action and class arbitration waiver clause was unconscionable and unenforceable.The decision by Judges Amalya L. Kearse, Jose A. Cabranes and Chester J. Straub clears the way for Joshua G. Fensterstock to be lead plaintiff in a putative class action against Affiliated Computer Services, Inc., which serviced student loan notes for Education Finance Partners, a now-bankrupt California corporation.Mr. Fensterstock borrowed the principal amount of $52,915 at a fixed interest rate in 2006 to help pay for consolidated loans from his education at the Hofstra University School of Law. He graduated from Hofstra in 2003 and is now a solo practitioner in Manhattan.He sued claiming that Education Finance Partners and Affiliated Computer Services would apply payments that were not received by a certain day each month to interest instead of applying the payments to principal.He alleged that, if the misallocations continued, he would be "required to make an enormous lump-sum payment" at the end of the repayment period.The companies moved to enforce a clause in the loan agreement barring a class action and compelling arbitration on a case-by-case basis. But Southern District Judge Thomas P. Griesa denied the motions on March 24, 2009, applying California law in finding the clause unconscionable.Affiliated Computer Service appealed to the circuit, where oral arguments were heard in November.Judge Kearse, writing the panel's 32-page opinion, cited a California Civil Code provision stating that "All contracts which have for their object, directly or indirectly, to exempt anyone from responsibility for his own fraud…are against the policy of the law."Judge Kearse said that "this principle is often a consideration in 'the justification of class action lawsuits,'" in the consumer fraud context, where the proof is common and it is impracticable for individual consumers to bring lawsuits because the expense is great and the recovery is small.At the circuit, Affiliated Computer Services argued that Mr. Fensterstock's argument that the clause was unconscionable was belied by the fact he was an attorney who specialized in complex financial transactions, and he did not allege he was surprised by the contract language.But Judge Kearse said that "where the clause is oppressive, procedural unconscionability may exist even in the absence of surprise."And Judge Kearse said that such a clause "presented to the weaker party on a take-it-or-leave-it basis without the opportunity for meaningful negotiation is, under California law, oppressive, and hence satisfies the requirement that there be at least a minimal showing of procedural unconscionability."The judge said Mr. Fensterstock was just three years out of law school when he applied for the consolidated loan, and while his experience in the law might have made him aware of the class action and class arbitration waiver, "we have seen nothing in his education, experience, or expertise to suggest that he had any meaningful opportunity to negotiate that clause out of the contract."Judge Kearse said the clause met the standard for unconscionability because "it is a standard contract of adhesion drafted by a party that had superior bargaining power," the disputes on the allocation between interest and principal "predictably involve small amounts of damages," and Mr. Fentsterstock alleged the two companies were "deliberately carrying out a scheme to cheat large numbers of borrowers out of individually small amounts of money."

Can't figure out if this woman is a bit of a whiner, or legitimately has a gripe. The economy is really shitty and the legal job market has all but collapsed, to an extent of about 75-85% of what it used to be. I'm very lucky to have a good paying legal job, but my efforts to move out of this gig and climb up to the next rung have stalled because every job announcement is getting like 2000 resumes... And yes, these are attorney positions and the applicants are for the most part qualified. (Spoke to a semi-retired government attorney the other and he mentioned the 2000-resume-per-vacancy number, and said that for one relatively meagre federal attorney position, they received resumes from FORMER BIGLAW PARTNERS who had been separated from their firms... How can you compete with that?)

As for this woman, she is also sending out resumes to retail, child care centers, etc. which makes me think she isn't all that excited about staying in law anyway. Kind of spreading herself too thin. She'd probably do better signing up with a legal headhunter who works on commission.

And yes, she went to a TIER ONE school, and so did I. With the competition out there, the sheer numbers of applicants for every job, I don't think Tier One means much any more -- it is all luck and connections, and being in the right place at the right time... That's how I got my current job.

There are many quotes that keeps surgeon inspired about his job, they also help him jump these large obstacles in life, here are a few:-

"At 10, I was intrigued by surgery, I wanted to be surgeon for a long time. I love doctor shows and surgery shows. Blood is not an issue for me. I even took pictures once of me getting my blood taken. "

"Dr.Babanga, my local doctor, recommended that I should try superflex before and after breakfast"

"Humanity abhors, above all things, a vacuum in itself, and your class will be cut off from humanity as surgeon cuts the cancer and alien growth from the body. "

Fantastic. surgeon is inspiredFantastic. surgeon is inspiredFantastic. surgeon is inspiredFantastic. surgeon is inspired

A tiny fraction of black folks I worked next to were solid workers. More than a few others were rendered delusional by their trash culture. The rest were fucking crazy and will end up on the street in the near future, barking outside a window at people eating inside.

Politico reports that Reid told reporters Wednesday that West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin has promised to name an interim replacement for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) this weekend. The new senator, combined with pledges from Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine to support the revised unemployment bill, would give the majority leader the filibuster-proof 60 votes that he needs to begin moving it to President Barack Obama’s desk.

“If Gov.r Manchin does what he has indicated to me he will, and we’ll have a new senator to replace Sen. Byrd, then we’ll vote Tuesday morning sometime on the unemployment extension,” Reid said.

With the $33 billion benefits package in legislative limbo, more than 2 million Americans unemployed for more than six months have missed benefit checks they would have received had the aid program not been allowed to expire in May.

First of all, let's just get this out of the way for all the Haterz out there... I am a white, straight male.

And I just want to go on record that BLACK PEOPLE HAVE SUFFERED MUCH MORE AT THE HANDS OF WHITE PEOPLE, THAN WHITE PEOPLE HAVE AT THE HANDS OF BLACK PEOPLE.

My ancestors had no part in enslaving Blacks from Africa, because 100% of them came from a country in Europe which was not involved in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and didn't start emigrating to the US until the late 1800s.

Plus, I was actually born in Europe of American parents who are of that country's heritage, but who were studying in that country while I was conceived/born.

However, for all the whites in this country whose ancestors DID take part in the enslavement of Africans, I am for REPARATIONS... Yeah, that's right you evil vile Anglo-Sakkkson crackers and Scots-Irish scum, pay up!!!

You people, collectively, have caused more suffering across this world, have cheated more people, have enslaved and killed more people, have raped more countries and indigenous peoples, and have destroyed more country's environments (inlcuding our own in North America), than have any other nationality/race/ethnicity not only living in the world today, but in the entire history of the human race (and yeah, that easily includes Mao's China, Stalin's Soviet Union, Pol Pot's Cambodia, etc.)

Not only should the white scum who enslaved Africans pay their descendants back for all the suffering they've caused, they should also pay the NATIVE AMERICANS for the same... the rape, the torture, the mass slaughter, etc.

Probably few or none of the so-called "whites" who come to this board are actually Anglo-Saxon (WASP) or Scots-Irish.

Probably just a bunch of "wannabe" whites -- Irish Catholics, Polish, and Italians.

None of these groups were even considered "white" by the WASPs and Scots-Irish before about the 1930s/40s.

Who wants to be part of a group (i.e. American so-called "whites") that has screwed over so many people.

Lol, reparations! So much racist hatre spewing forth from the left wing. Well fools, O'trama is your reparation. After big O the era of calling some racist at the dro of a hat and being taken seriously is over. No one cares about the left wing, white hating fringe anymore. You are outing yoursleves on a daily basis. Just look @ the formerly respected NAACP an how they have lost their way.

These black temp bitches on projects are CRAZY. They are ugly and no one is fucking them - and they go postal. A friend of mine was working on a project where she asked a black bitch to keep down her phone conversations and the ghetto cunt almost threatned to rip her throat out.

No one wants these bitches - so they start bullying people at work to get off. What a bunch of hideous drag queens.

Sandrene Ryan at De Novo and Marjroie at Strategic hire the ugliest laziest most odious saddlebag queens - maybe 'cause they are the only people they can relate to. Any project staffed by these two recruiters will be full of crazy black hos.

Sandrene is notorious for being prejudiced against white people, especially white men. But her job is to make sure DeNovo and the firms who use temps look good on the DIVERSITY numbers, so what do you expect?

More than 2 million workers who have been laid off for long stretches could get their unemployment benefits restored as early as next week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate will take up a measure Tuesday to restore the extended benefits, right after a new Democratic senator from West Virginia is sworn in.

With the death of Sen. Robert Byrd, Senate Democrats had been a vote short of the 60 needed to overcome a GOP filibuster. West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin has said he could name a temporary replacement to fill Byrd's seat by Friday.

The House already has passed a bill to extend the benefits through November, at a cost of about $34 billion.

That's great, 5:06. But it's a shame that people have to rely on unemployment benefits in the first place, especially educated professionals, like attorneys.

There will be no economic recovery until people start working, earning, and buying things again. Any propaganda that claims the economy is showing signs of recovery without jobs is false. It's political posturing.

But where will people work? What kind of jobs will they do, when people in the Third World (PC term: "Developing Countries") will do it for 30 cents and hour? And this includes document review........

Shoot girl, big fat black odious temps are my friends...they are the only ones who will sit for hours and hours and bill me overtime. Check out some of our lovelies on my blog. No one wants them, no one wants to lay them, the public certainly does not want to see them - so they are content to sit in dank basements all night dreaming of buying that Gucci bag that might save them from their hideousness. They are the only ones I can manipulate and BULLY....giiiiirl

More than 2 million workers who have been laid off for long stretches could get their unemployment benefits restored as early as next week.The Senate plans to take up a measure Tuesday to restore the extended benefits, right after a new Democratic senator from West Virginia is sworn in, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.With the death of Sen. Robert Byrd, Senate Democrats had been a vote short of the 60 needed to overcome a GOP filibuster. West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin has said he could name a temporary replacement to fill Byrd's seat as early as Friday.The House already has passed a bill to extend the benefits through November, at a cost of about $34 billion. The money would be borrowed, adding to the national debt.About 2.5 million people have lost their benefits since the last extension ran out at the end of May. The bill would add up to 73 weeks of extra benefits, paid for by the federal government, on top of the 26 weeks typically provided by states.

Reid, D-Nev., said Byrd's replacement will be sworn in Tuesday afternoon, and a bill to extend the jobless benefits will be up for a vote immediately afterward.

Lawmakers have been sparring for weeks over extending the benefits. Some Democrats have argued that lawmakers have a moral obligation to extend the benefits while the unemployment rate hovers above 9 percent. Many Democrats also see the benefits as insurance against the economy sliding back into recession because laid off workers typically spend their payments quickly, stimulating the economy.Republicans, tapping into voter anger about the growing national debt, said they would support extending the benefits if the bill was paid for. They have proposed using unspent money from President Barack Obama's massive 2009 economic recovery package, a plan Democrats oppose.

More than 2 million workers who have been laid off for long stretches could get their unemployment benefits restored as early as next week.

The Senate plans to take up a measure Tuesday to restore the extended benefits, right after a new Democratic senator from West Virginia is sworn in, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.

With the death of Sen. Robert Byrd, Senate Democrats had been a vote short of the 60 needed to overcome a GOP filibuster. West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin has said he could name a temporary replacement to fill Byrd's seat as early as Friday.

The House already has passed a bill to extend the benefits through November, at a cost of about $34 billion. The money would be borrowed, adding to the national debt.

About 2.5 million people have lost their benefits since the last extension ran out at the end of May. The bill would add up to 73 weeks of extra benefits, paid for by the federal government, on top of the 26 weeks typically provided by states.

Reid, D-Nev., said Byrd's replacement will be sworn in Tuesday afternoon, and a bill to extend the jobless benefits will be up for a vote immediately afterward.

Lawmakers have been sparring for weeks over extending the benefits. Some Democrats have argued that lawmakers have a moral obligation to extend the benefits while the unemployment rate hovers above 9 percent. Many Democrats also see the benefits as insurance against the economy sliding back into recession because laid off workers typically spend their payments quickly, stimulating the economy.

Republicans, tapping into voter anger about the growing national debt, said they would support extending the benefits if the bill was paid for. They have proposed using unspent money from President Barack Obama's massive 2009 economic recovery package, a plan Democrats oppose.

Very true. I have a DUMB ASS white cracker 21 year old guy who is managing me and a bunch of black fat STUPID temps. He DOES NOT have to sit with them so whenever I complain about their 'tude and their ugly looks he always yells at me - "I see no problem, I see no problem". And of course when he comes by they all act nice and bow to the WHITE LORD - while making life hell for all of us behind him. The white cracker and the black temps are BOTH NASTY ASSHOLES - it's the people in between who get FUCKED.

President Barack Obama says Senate Republicans are playing politics with bills that would extend benefits to the unemployed and increase lending to small businesses.

Striking a deeply partisan tone in his weekly radio and online address, Obama said the GOP leadership has chosen to "filibuster our recovery and obstruct our progress" by blocking votes on agenda items the president says would breath life into the economic recovery.

"These steps aren't just the right thing to do for those hardest hit by the recession," Obama said. "They're the right thing to do for all of us."

The address was recorded at the White House before Obama flew to Maine on Friday for a weekend family vacation.

Lawmakers have battled for weeks over extending unemployment benefits to workers who have been out of a job for long stretches of time. The last extension ran out at the end of May, leaving about 2.5 million people without benefits.

The House has already passed a bill to extend the benefits through November, but with the death of Sen. Robert Byrd, Senate Democrats don't have the 60 votes they need to overcome a GOP filibuster. The Senate plans to take up the measure again on Tuesday — when Byrd's successor, the former chief counsel for Gov. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is expected to be sworn in.

Obama said lawmakers' obligation to extend benefits is both moral and practical, citing some economists who believe extending unemployment insurance is one of the most cost-effective ways to jump-start the economy because it puts money in the pockets of people who are likely to spend it quickly.

The $34 billion needed to extend benefits would be borrowed, adding to the nation's mounting debt. Republicans have tapped into the public's anger and concern over that debt, saying they would only support extending benefits if the bill was paid for.

Obama pushed back in his address, accusing Republicans of making their stand at the expense of the unemployed "after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit."

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL FAT BLACK TEMPS SHOULD BE KICKED IN THEIR FAT ASSES. BOTTOM OF THE BARREL FAT BLACK TEMPS SHOULD BE KICKED IN THEIR FAT ASSES. BOTTOM OF THE BARREL FAT BLACK TEMPS SHOULD BE KICKED IN THEIR FAT ASSES.

Promoters of fat black temps - Sandrene Ryan of De Hovo, Marjorie of Stragetic, Dawn at S&C - why? because they too are ugly fat black chicks that no one wants to touch

The white elites are hilarious. They won't let the blacks into the associate ranks, generally the top blacks tend to work government jobs or public interest, but they want to tout diversity so they stick them into doc review. Then they tell the general white public that they give blacks jobs because of affirmative action, while leaving out the fact that they only hand out shitty jobs while keeping racism well and alive for the good ones.

So who gets fucked here? Well the blacks do, because of no shot at associate ranks and moving up. And the unconnected non-elite everyone else (including whites but also other minorities, who don't get to be considered in the first place for affirmative action, because that is only blacks and maybe hispanics). Meanwhile the elite whites are laughing their asses off because the general public is too stupid to blame them. They either pretend racism doesn't exist or they blame the blacks.

Things were going well at my firm until blacks showed up. Immediately the atmosphere went from everyone working hard and sucking it to to being LIMP NOODLES - whining, bitching, gossiping, eyeballing - anything but work. Time to get out before the blacks totally kill any MOTIVATION and OPTIMISM I have left in life.

I am going to put money on the table that regardless of the current rhetoric from both sides of the aisles on extension going through on Tuesday, that it does NOT go through as planned or hoped for by most everyone, myself included.

Reason: It is counter-intuitive. Rather than go along rationally with the idea of HOW the UEI money will be funded e.g. accounting technique that can be solved easily by smart, logical business oriented people on The Hill, on the street, and in households, some Democrats will decide that they would rather create a crises as we head towards Fall elections.

It would be a useful tool for the Democrats to have an extension fail so that they can blame the Republicans. With less than 8% of any of Obama's staff coming from a business, economics, or finance background, and most being policy wonks mkore concerned about elections, some Democrats would rather see a major crises and create more angst so that they can turn the rhetoric against the other party.

It is a desparate move, by desparate people.

Trust me, they'll do it.

Moreover, everyone starts leaving D.C. this next week for their vacations in Europe, Cape Cod, the Hamptons etc. They now are looking forward to the fundraising season, fun and sun, and the last thing on their minds' will be having to vote or actually think and read. Their staffers already have left town, and thus, there is no one to advise them or provide them intelligence on what to do.

It is rather scary. The cockroaches are running.

Repeat of 2008-2009 financial blowout, which in reality also started to unfold in each August.

By the way, can we halt the racist crap.There are bigger issues coming down.

Just wanted to let everybody I am still working. Same project and still at 50/75. Pumpin out about 55 a week. Pleny of time for Hamptons on weekend.

Still working that Asian chick. My c*ck is about 8 in+, but whilst in her tiny butthole it looks to be 10+. Definitely a great lay.

Did I mention that my uncle passed away leaving me his 3 bed 2 bath Coop on Central Park West? Yes, very cool. He also left a me a maintenance fund which essentially is a fund worth 30 years of the monthly maintenace of $2500. Do the math and that's about 900K. It's in an account yielding roughly 2.5-3% annually AND even better, I get the money if I decide to sell the Coop. Now, the coop is prob worth 8-10MM (debt free), but I don't want to sell. I'd rather just live free, have my two trusts pay my minimal expenses and have the coder $ as spending cash. I don't know. What I do know is that life is good. Let me add it up:

In theory I am not against the idea of reparations for blacks but that would just mean more ghetto sleighs on the road with industrial size woofers disturbing the peace, more money for drugs, more big flatscreens to watch BET degenerate entertainment, more uncivilized and angry people moving into your middle class neighborhood, etc., etc., etc. Would free money really help? It is evident that the free money they already get does not help them at all. In general they are not rational. hey vote for anyone who is black lib. They voted Marion Barry in over and over again even thoough he was a POS crack head and John.

My apologies to the many educated/civilized black Americans the above does not apply to.

Why is the focus on black people? Last time I checked, these are not the people that are selling false dreams to law students or masterminding the shenigians (think: exploitation of contract attorneys, selective hiring)at law firms. I agree that law firms such as Sullivan & Cromwell have ghetto people. However, most people here are not really in a position to throw stones.

I had similar experience in DC. The project lead told everyone to slow down so his friends wouldn't look so bad. Although the agency told us not to click other's computers to prevent time out, he ocntinued the process to protect his buddies. God know how this person became team lead. He was the worst inmate in the asylum. When it came time for layoffs, I can bet his worthless buddies stayed on the project.